Exposed Secrets
by SakuraConsoles
Summary: Rei and Nagisa have a study session one day afterschool when Nagisa finds Rei's diary under his bed. Curiosity gets the better of him and soon enough Nagisa finds out something he never thought he'd know about his friend.


Ever since Nagisa came into Rei's life, the blue haired boy had never had a moments peace, so for Nagisa to be so quiet and focused on his studies almost made him feel uncomfortable.

Once their classes were over for the day Nagisa had slumped over his desk in defeat, mentioning how he was still falling behind in maths class, Rei decided to invite the other over for a little study session. Once they had taken the train and reached the Ryugazaki house, Rei pulled out the sticky notes and highlighters (Rei had mentioned something about a theory that colours improve memory but Nagisa was lost once the technical explanation was given ). It hadn't taken long for textbooks and notebooks to cover Rei's bedroom floor, no guesses as to who was going to end up cleaning up the mess afterwards. On the plus side, the past two hours had been very productive and Nagisa was finally getting his head around trigonometry, so Rei was assured that the bomb site was all worth it.

"Rei-chan? How do I solve this problem?"

Rei looked up from his own textbook at the sudden mention of his name, he had been fixated on his own study material before a textbook had flown unceremoniously into his lap. The action would have startled him, had this not been the third time Nagisa had tossed books at him. Rei lifted the textbook by one of the covers with delicate fingers , pages hanging limp with covers torn, looking sorry for itself from the abuse from the bouncy blond. Thanks to the textbook's brief fly Rei had no idea as to what page he was supposed to be looking at.

"Page 47, part C." said Nagisa. Rei nodded once and adjusted his glasses to read the question at hand.

"With this one you just do the same as you did before, the question looks different but trust me, the method is exactly the same."

"Ah I see! Thank you Rei-chan!" cheered Nagisa who frantically started scribbling notes in his exercise book. It almost appeared like a race, with Nagisa quickly scribbling down the answer before his memory faded and he wouldn't remember how to solve it again. "I could never understand this in middle school despite three painful years of it, yet you teach me in a few minutes and I feel like I can solve anything."

It took a lot for Rei to hide a small blush that dared to creep up to his cheeks, so to hide it he made a face of triumph "Of course, I always told you I'm a great teacher. Ahahaha!" Nagisa just grinned as the other continued with his dorky laugh. _Rei-chan's a little weird sometimes. Okay, definitely weird, but he really is a great teacher and really smart too. And here he is spending his free time helping me_ Nagisa thought. Once Rei had calmed down they continued with their studies as they had done, with Nagisa rewarding himself with a sweet for every page he completed, before it turned into a sweet for every three questions, then a sweet for every question.

"Nagisa-kun, how about we stop here for today? We've both worked hard so I think we deserved it. You'll have to go home soon as well right?"

"You can stop if you want, I just want to finish this question." said Nagisa, already unwrapping a peppermint sweet with his free hand, ready for his next reward. Rei just smiled to himself and closed his textbook for the time being, a little orange bookmark sticking out of the corner ready for when he next studied. He couldn't help but feel amazed at how different they were acting, usually Nagisa was the one to decide on breaks and when to finish with Rei insisting on carrying on for a little longer. This had pretty much summarised their first year of High School before the situation with Nagisa and his parents. Rei had noticed that since then, his attitude towards his school work had changed drastically. Instead of Nagisa complaining about study sessions, he would sometimes suggest them himself. And he was much more focused too. Of course he would still get distracted by something silly now and again, but he would make up for it and work hard. Rei couldn't help but feel proud of Nagisa because of this.

With a sigh of content, Rei lied down on his bedroom floor with his head resting on the brown cushion he had been previously sat on, hands folded on his front.

"Nagisa-kun?"

"Hm?" hummed Nagisa.

"I'm happy you're taking your studies more seriously, I hope you know you have worked hard and I know this will pay off for you come exam season."

Nagisa's mouth formed a small 'o' shape before he smiled softly, gaze still lingering on the messy handwriting in front of him.

"I hope so too. I want to make my parents proud of me, not just for them but for you, Haru-chan and Mako-chan. Soon it will be just us two and we'll be taking over the swim club, so I want to prove that I can do it. You'll still be here too so I know I can do this." At those last words he looked straight into Rei's eyes. Nagisa's pink eyes were shining with determination and a cute grin to match. Rei was taken aback. He nodded once and gazed back up at the ceiling. The next few minutes were fairly quiet with the faint sound of pencil marking on paper.

* * *

"Aaaand I'm done," cheered Nagisa, he stood up and stretched after staying in one spot for too long. Rei asked him what they should do now and if Nagisa needed to be back home by a certain time. The blond boy insisted he was fine and could stay for a bit longer. "Let's snack on some sweets."

Rei mentally sighed. "Haven't you been doing that for the past two and a half hours?"

"Heh, maybe? But there's no problem with eating a few more right?" Nagisa winked playfully, tongue sticking out.

"Nagisa-kun, you'll get cavities from eating too many sweets," Rei pointed out but he might as well have said 'What an amazing idea! Eat as many as you like,' because Nagisa just crawled around the floor hunting for a certain strawberry flavoured sweet. Rei chuckled to himself thinking how typical this was of Nagisa before closing his eyes, still unfamiliar of quiet time with Nagisa around but taking it in all the same.

The blond boy searched the floor on all fours in hopes of finding one of his prized strawberry sweets, but all he could find was peppermint and chocolate which disappointed him. Sure they tasted good but he was really in the mood for a strawberry one. Just as he was about to settle for a banana flavoured sweet that was nudging his right knee, something caught his eye from underneath Rei's bed. There was a pink and white striped sweet wrapper, complete with tasty treat inside. He crouched down and reached out for his treasure when his hand landed on something hard, like a book. Rei had many books scattered all over his bedroom so Nagisa wasn't too surprised, but this one was different. This one was under Rei's bed, did he want it to be hidden? The book was purple with roses decorating the front cover like a border, there were no words on the front so there wasn't anything to suggest the contents of the book. Judging from the size and the fact that it was an actual book rather than a magazine, Nagisa dismissed any thoughts of Rei having something like _that_ in his possession (unless this book turned out to be some form of classical literature turned into erotica, Nagisa was confident the book was safe to look at.)

Meanwhile Rei had zoned out into his own world before a small cry of victory interrupted his thoughts and a sudden weight lying close to him. Rei couldn't help but smile, his eyebrows slanting upwards.

"You found a strawberry one then?"

"Sure did. Here I found a banana one for you too."

"Thanks Nagisa-kun but I'm not a fan of-"

The banana sweet was plunked straight into Rei's mouth once the opportunity was there. Rei's eyes widen at the sudden intrusion but found the sweet didn't taste as bad as he'd thought.

"Also I found this whilst I was looking. What is it?" Nagisa mentioned as he flicked through the pages. Realising what Nagisa pulled out Rei sat up instantly, choking on his sweet. Judging from a couple of lines towards the beginning and Rei's reaction, Nagisa sussed it out.

"Ooooh so this is your diary? I didn't think you kept one of these."

"Nagisa-kun why do you have that?! Please put it back where you found it, that is private information!" Rei cried, his face red with embarrassment.

"Relax Rei-chan, when I found this under your bed I thought you had something else hidden, so a diary is really nothing to be flustered about."

Rei's face had gone bright red by now, realising what Nagisa was implying, he was ready to dissolve into the ground. Diaries were kept hidden for a reason and he had wanted to keep it hidden from Nagisa of all people.

"Rei-chan I'm not going to judge you for what's in here, sure I'll probably laugh at some of your more silly entries but it's fine. I have one too."

"You do?"

"Of course. I like to write down the good times so I can remember them forever!" Nagisa laughed as he skimmed through some of the pages. Eventually Rei managed to calm down, his face returning to his usual colour, he knew exactly what was in his diary but as long as Nagisa didn't go too far into the book, all would be fine.

Nagisa's hands were clenched onto the book, skimming the pages, occasionally laughing at how Rei would write as if he were actually _talking to_ his diary. He stopped laughing once he got to one entry in particular.

_If someone told me a few years ago that I would finally learn to swim I would never have believed them. I couldn't understand why I couldn't swim at all, I had the theories memorised and everything but I always ended up sinking like a rock. And if someone told me I would compete in a relay with some talented swimmers when i got into High School, I wouldn't have even begun to be able to comprehend. Yet somehow this has all happened. And not only that, we won! And we have qualified for regionals! Even now I still cannot believe it, I got a bit emotional afterwards (well, very emotional but let's keep that between us okay?). I'm looking forward to the next tournament and hopefully we will win again. _

What Nagisa read next made his eyes widen.

_Not only that, but I swam with the best team-mates I could ever ask for. Haruka-senpai, Makoto-senpai and Nagisa-kun. All of them are very talented and I still cannot believe I was able to swim with them. I still have a long way to go before I can call myself anything special but with everyone beside me, I've realised that swimming is actually possible for me now. I wasn't even going to join, had Nagisa-kun not constantly pestered me into doing so. Something about having a girly name? What an illogical reason to join...but somehow I still did and I am very thankful for Nagisa-kun. Because of him I made some irreplaceable friends who I'll remember for a long time, him included._

"Rei-chan.."

"What is it?" Rei pulled the diary towards him with his right hand reading the opened pages. Nagisa was still staring at them, his mouth open in a large smile.

"I'm so happy too Rei-chan! I'm so happy you joined the swim club and swam with me and Haru-chan and Mako-chan. It's so much fun when we are all together." Nagisa cried, his mouth still hung open with eyes shining like water. Rei smiled softly at him, his eyes still lingering on Nagisa's.

They stayed like that for several moments until there was a knock on Rei's bedroom door, his mother's voice calling from the other side.

"Sorry to bother your studying boys but Rei do you have a minute? Your brother's on the phone."

"Okay, I'll be there in a second," Rei replied as he let go of the book. "Sorry Nagisa-kun, I won't be long I promise."

"It's fine, tell your brother I said hi." And with that Rei closed the door behind him, leaving Nagisa with his diary and surrounded in a pile of both opened and unopened sweet wrappers. At first Nagisa just lied there, the pages he had just read still open in front of him. He knew inside that Rei must have enjoyed the swim club, but to actually see it in writing for himself, he felt a warm feeling grow inside his chest. Smiling to himself, he flicked through some more pages.

A few pages later and something caught his eye in the corner of a page, it was only small but still noticeable, a red heart was drawn in the top left corner of the page. Instantly Nagisa was intrigued,_ looks like I found some pages on Rei's love story._ Nagisa wasn't sure who to expect, but he certainly didn't expect to read what he did.

_It's sad to think that in just a few months Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai will be graduating High School and going to their own universities. Time sure goes fast. Before Nagisa-kun and I know it we'll be the only swimmers let in the club. Gou Kou will still be with us of course, hopefully she'll help us get more members. It will be strange not having the other two with us, but at least Nagisa-kun is still here with me._

_Speaking of Nagisa-kun...I've started to notice something different about him recently. Maybe it's the way he smiles or how he is always full of confidence and energy I'm not sure. But whenever I look at him now I feel something different than what I did before, it's a warm feeling and t's not bad at all._

_When I first met him, I thought he'd be an annoying thorn in my side, but as we have spent more time together, he has become a very special friend to me who I owe a lot too. Had it not been for him I would never have been able to swim, I know that for a fact. We'll keep this between ourselves, but I really love Nagisa-kun, a lot. He's a beautiful person who will go far in life. He's the kind who wants to run off on an adventure, I just want to hold him, but also I want to be by his side on these adventures. _

_I should probably end this here since it's getting embarrassing, if he ended up reading this I think I'd die. He would probably think I'm weird as well._

There wasn't a sound in the room apart from a purple book landing on Nagisa's face, cheeks flushed red like the strawberries he loves so much.

* * *

20 minutes later Rei came back up the stairs opening the door to his bedroom.

"Sorry about that Nagisa-kun. I said I'd be back shortly but once my brother starts talking he just doesn't stop. Kinda reminds me of-"

Nagisa was lying on his side with his head resting on the purple cushion next to Rei's. His body was turned away from Rei, soft snoring escaping his mouth. Rei chuckled to himself.

"Now now I didn't think I was gone that long. Come on, you'll have to go home soon." He leaned over, prying the diary from Nagisa's grip. "I didn't think this little thing could be so interesting, but at least you didn't read the one where..."

The diary fluttered to the floor in an instant as Rei's hands covered his rapidly blushing face. _He read that page oh my goodness he read that of all pages why was I so careless I should have seen this coming now he knows! I should have taken the diary with me, how could I have been so stupid?_ Rei slowly fell to his knees, letting the incident sink in, he wanted nothing more than for the ground to swallow him whole. The silence was broken by the sound of mumbling coming from the blond haired boy.

"..love you too Rei-chan.."

"Eh?"

Nagisa's shoulders tensed up, giving the game away. He knew he wouldn't have been able to keep it up for long, if Rei had taken one look at Nagisa's tomato face it would have been obvious. He sat up so Rei could only see half of his face.

"I said I love you too..."

Rei was at a loss for words, was this happening right now? Or did he fall down the stairs and it was all some strange realistic dream he's having. If this was a dream, Rei was certain he didn't want to wake up any time soon.


End file.
